Hotels Crete
Geography of Crete
    
The island of Crete flanks the southern entrance to the Aegean basin and must
have always been a focus for sea travellers between the coastal fingers of Europe,
Asia and Africa. Its extreme length from west to east is about 260kms, the widest
points in the centre are about 60kms apart, and narrowest near Lerapetra in
the east are about 12kms.
Crete is set in an area which is geologically unstable and has consequently
been affected by frequent earthquakes, some of which account for severe destruction
of palaces and towns in the Bronze Age. There is also evidence that the sea
level has risen since ancient times, submerging settlements, houses and harbour
installations in many places around its shores.
There are many Bronze Age settlements along the coasts in central and eastern
Crete, now entirely or partially submerged below the sea or exposed on the shore.
The sea has covered sandy beaches on which ancient ships could be beached. Modern
ships must have anchorage, which helps to explain why the principal Cretan ports
of Hania, Rethimno and Iraklion are, in modern times, on the northern coast.
The geological composition of the island and the seismic upheavals it has suffered
over the ages have caused it to be honeycombed with many hundreds of caves,
some of them small, others vast. These caves have been used by the Cretans as
places of refuge, and even today there are said to be over a hundred churches
in them.
Roughly two thirds of the whole surface of the island consists of the mountainous
regions now so conspicuously rugged and barren; nowadays nearly half the land
area is only suitable for nomadic grazing. The island has no navigable rivers,
for the streams which can be called rivers are too shallow and rocky.
Selection of hotels in this region:
Candia Park Village | | Hera Village Aparthotel | | Hermes Hotel | | Santa Marina Hotel | | Rea Hotel | | Iberostar Creta Marine | | Iberostar Creta Mare | |
Click below for a
full list of hotels and online booking
|
